When Menacing Microbes
Become Deadly Weapons

By

Jay Winik

Updated Oct. 4, 2001 12:13 a.m. ET

In July, members of a congressional panel listened, in stunned silence, as a group of security experts and political leaders (including former Sen. Sam Nunn) outlined their conclusions from an exercise code-named "Dark Winter."

The purpose of the exercise was to imagine a bioterrorist attack -- smallpox -- on three U.S. states and to project exactly what would likely happen. As the experts described it, within a matter of...